St. Louis woman gets 78 years for abusing children

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A St. Louis woman has been sentenced to 78 years in prison for beating, whipping and waterboarding her children.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 34-year-old Lakechia Schonta Stanley, of St. Louis, was sentenced Friday for multiple assault and endangerment charges. Prosecutors described the abuse as "systematic torture." Her children told interviewers that the abuse included whippings with electrical cords and being forced into scalding or freezing showers.

The abuse came to light in October 2011 after one of the children went to school complaining of severe pain in her arm. Prosecutors say the girl revealed Stanley had beaten her with a baseball bat because she had not cleaned the kitchen quickly enough.

Stanley's husband, 30-year-old Andrew Rui Stanley, was sentenced to 160 years in prison for related charges.